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Florida Family Finds Monster 16ft, 300lb Python On Their Property RM – TooFab

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

A family in Florida had an unannounced visitor over the weekend: a 16'4" 300lb Burmese python.

Aaron Brown was driving through his property in Zolfo Springs on Sunday when he spotted the monster snake hiding in a pipe.

He told Fox8 he tried to summon family members to help capture it, and understandably, some were more enthusiastic than others.

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"I tried to coach my mom to get down there and grab a hold of it, and she wasn't going for that," he said, so recruited his cousin Bobby Wilkinson instead.

"That's the biggest snake Ive ever seen," Wilkinson said, who shot and killed it.

"We started pulling him out of the culvert, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I was like, 'My God, look at this thing. This is one huge snake'."

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"I said I ain't never seen one this big and never thought in my life I would have the opportunity to mess with something this big. This was one of my bucket list things."

The ridiculously-sized reptile even caught the attention of Wilkinson's heroes, the "Guardians of the Glades"; as the snake bounty hunters of the Discovery series came down to retrieve it.

"Ever since the 'Guardian of the Glades' has been on, I always tell my wife I'd love to go down there and catch a snake. Just one time go catch a snake," he added. "Lo and behold, one that was astronomically huge fell in my lap because my cousin spotted it in a ditch."

If killing the creature seems cruel, it is actually encouraged by the state authorities.

Burmese pythons are not native but invasive species, and incredibly harmful to the Everglades eco-system; they'll eat everything from small mammals and other reptiles to prey as big as deer and even bobcats.

They managed to take a foothold as a result of escaped or intentionally released pets; with females able to lay up to 100 eggs, in the space of around two decades, there are now estimated to be between 100,000 and 300,000 of them hiding in the Everglades.

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Florida Family Finds Monster 16ft, 300lb Python On Their Property RM - TooFab

Document Security Systems, Inc., Coinstreet Partners and GSX Group Collaborate to Develop Digital Asset Exchange Business in the US – PRNewswire

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

The newly formed JV will first pursue a digital securities exchange license in the US. Moving forward, this JV will be the key operational company building and operating a digital securities exchange that utilizes the GSX STACS blockchain technology, serving corporate issuers and investors in the sector.

Frank D. Heuszel, CEO of DSS, commented on the news of the new JV, saying:

"We have been looking for the right opportunity to accelerate our digital asset business and believe this collaboration will provide a strong foundation for success. The transformative potential of digital securities is extremely exciting, and we look forward to pursuing the massive opportunity in the US for a secondary market in securities tokens."

A key facilitator in the new JV, Samson Lee, Founder & CEO of Coinstreet Partners commented:

"For the past 4 years, Coinstreet has been focusing on primary market activities for STO and digital assets in the international market. We are delighted to establish a strategic partnership with DSS and GSX to develop a digital asset exchange in the US. This is a major step forward for Coinstreet, and it will allow us to vertically integrate our primary market services with regulated secondary trading venues in the US, which is a very important market for us."

Nick Cowan, CEO of GSX Group, added on the deal's conclusion:

"Through this strategic joint venture, we are realizing our vision to establish a paradigm shift in the capital markets. With the help of our new partners, DSS and Coinstreet, and using our underlying bespoke blockchain for securities, the GSX STACS network, we believe this new exchange will provide some exciting opportunities for US and global issuers."

According to a survey from the World Economic Forum, 10% of the world's GDP will be tokenized by 2027-- with an estimated market capitalization of US$24 trillion. With increased clarity in the regulatory framework and many positive developments in the industry, such as wider adoption of digital assets from financial institutions and innovative digital security offerings from large enterprises, both asset tokenization and digitized securities are gaining much momentum for new growth in the financial industry.

Through their JV collaboration, DSS, Coinstreet Partners, and GSX Group could become the next digital asset exchange to secure FINRA registration as an alternative trading system (ATS).

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About Document Security Systems, Inc.

DSS is a multinational company, operating businesses focused on brand protection technology, blockchain security, direct marketing, healthcare, real estate, and securitized digital assets. Its business model is based on a distribution sharing system in which shareholders will receive shares in its subsidiaries as DSS strategically spins them out into IPOs. Its historic business revolves around counterfeit deterrent and authentication technologies, smart packaging, and consumer product engagement. DSS is led by its Chairman and largest shareholder, Mr. Fai Chan, a highly successful global business veteran of more than 40 years specializing in corporate transformation while managing risk. He has successfully restructured more than 35 corporations with a combined value of US$25 billion.

For more information on DSS visithttp://www.dsssecure.com.

About Coinstreet Partners (Coinstreet)

Founded in 2017, Coinstreet is an award-winning, AI-powered decentralized investment banking group, a premium financial services firm for private wealth, and a professional consultancy firm in the Digital Asset and FinTech sectors, providing a business eco-system for the new era of digital economy. Coinstreet focuses on five key business segments: (1) Digital Asset Investment Banking, (2) Digital Asset/Wealth Management & Private Banking, (3) Digital Asset Global Distribution Coordination, (4) Asset Tokenization & Security Digitization Management Solution, and (5) Decentralized Finance & DLT Solution.

Coinstreet is a co-organizer of Global Online Investor Roadshow (www.GOIR.info) - the next generation, institutional scale, online private placement platform for private equity, alternative investments, and digital asset opportunities; and a co-organizer of TADS Awards (www.TADSawards.org) - the world's first international award for Tokenized Assets and Digitized Securities sector.

For more information on Coinstreet, visit https://coinstreet.partners/

About GSX Group

GSX Group, that owns and operates the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) is a growing Fintech ecosystem of digital securities exchanges. GSX Group seeks to build a digital ecosystem to exploit the next evolutionary stage in capital markets development: the tokenization of economies facilitating the adoption by, and convergence between, issuers and investors.

For more information on GSX Group, visit https://www.gsxgroup.global/

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the Company's intended use of proceeds and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include: risks relating to our growth strategy; our ability to obtain, perform under and maintain financing and strategic agreements and relationships; risks relating to the results of development activities; our ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel; our need for substantial additional funds; patent and intellectual property matters; competition; as well as other risks described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the prospectus and in our other filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, our reports on Forms 8-K and 10-Q, all of which can be obtained on the SEC website atwww.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made and reflect management's current estimates, projections, expectations and beliefs. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.

SOURCE Coinstreet Partners

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Document Security Systems, Inc., Coinstreet Partners and GSX Group Collaborate to Develop Digital Asset Exchange Business in the US - PRNewswire

5G and the digital cockpit Q&A with Harman – just-auto.com

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Kevin Markell

Can you provide an overview of what Harman has seen evolve in the digital cockpit in the past year or two, and how you see that developing to introduce new capabilities over the next couple of years?

We're seeing the value of the vehicle shift from RPM to what we call "EPM", or Experiences Per Mile.

The most significant shifts in the digital cockpit reflects the key trends in mobility today. It is clearer than ever before that our cars are about much more than moving us from point A to point B. Safety is expected but brilliant experiences are demanded and we're seeing the value of the vehicle shift from RPM to what we call "EPM", or Experiences Per Mile. This means that functionality, safety and advanced entertainment needs to be perfectly integrated with the car, and connect the occupant with their digital life. We're supporting our OEM partners in this journey to leverage Harman's differentiated technologies, iconic brands, and eco-systems to bring these experiences to life.

Harman started off 2021 by showcasing three fully-integrated digital cockpit solutions at our virtual Harman ExPLORE event. These illustrated how the car can leverage Harman technology to create the perfect environment for gaming, creating content, and experiencing a drive-in concert. These are what we call 'ExPs', or experience concepts that are capable of solving modern mobility pain points. Each features Harman technology that is available today, and we foresee vehicles offering this level of experience in the near future.

Looking forward, one of the biggest developments over the next few years will be further integration of vehicle systems and an even greater blending of in-vehicle and mobile lifestyles. Digital cockpit architectures have already become more powerful and capable of integrating Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) functionality, advanced audio features, and rich connections with cloud-based services. At Harman, we're focused on digital cockpit solutions that are fully integrated so our OEM partners can deliver the experiences that customers want, continue to reinforce brand differentiation, and perhaps most importantly, future-proof their solutions as mobility continues to evolve dramatically.

In what ways are intelligent cockpit systems' capabilities different to those of current electronic cockpit systems? Why are they expected to be the future of infotainment?

I think the biggest difference is right there in the name; intelligent. Current electronic cockpit systems operate in separate silos: the head-up display, the instrument cluster and the infotainment system all display relevant information but often do not operate in harmony. The intelligent digital cockpit combines everything through a single platform driver safety features, cloud services, connectivity services, audio process, and integrated in-vehicle infotainment. By operating through a single platform, hardware resources can be shared to increase efficiency, improve security and driver experience, whilst simultaneously understanding how to reduce weight, cost and upgradability.

What role will 5G play in autonomous car technology?

The adoption of 5G is an imperative step in the move towards autonomous driving, and Harman will launch the industry's first 5G system in 2021. By leveraging the high speeds and lower latencies of 5G, our OEM partners and other eco-system members can create vehicle-to-everything (V2X) advanced safety features that mitigate road conflicts, and use peer-to-peer signals to warn drivers and pedestrians of potential hazards. It is not just inside the vehicle, but outside too, with local councils and governments being able to improve nearby road infrastructure to help improve roadway efficiency, using V2X-enabled Roadside Units (RSU) to control traffic lights, utility poles and traffic metering systems.

We are seeing semiconductor companies working toward network access devices that will essentially turn autonomous vehicles into mobile data centres. Is this another spin-off benefit that you recognise from 5G?

There can be as many as 50 individual compute blocks in the car that communicate with each other over in-vehicle networks and gateways that manage security and policy.

Computers have been part of the modern automobile for over 20 years. In today's modern cars, there can be as many as 50 individual compute blocks in the car that communicate with each other over in-vehicle networks and gateways that manage security and policy. As in-car computing capabilities continue to expand to support new features and 5G networks provide secure communication with network and cloud-based services the car will have similar capabilities to a data centre with cyber-secure gateways, general purpose compute blocks to host the applications and services, and storage for algorithms and applications.

We are hearing a lot about how the accessibility of connected technologies like 5G, IoT, Augmented Reality, OTA and AI is increasing rapidly. What is Harman doing to make these digital experiences seamless?

Harman has been investing in these technologies for many years, and has already launched IoT, Augmented Reality, and OTA solutions in the market with several OEMs and as mentioned before will launch our 5G solution this year. Going forward, we will expand our portfolio to leverage AI to build even smarter solutions, including software that anticipates connectivity disruption and bandwidth demands miles in advance. It will prepare downloads in areas with good connectivity, or even in free or lower-price connectivity areas, to optimise performance and reduce the cost of data consumption. For energy efficiency, Harman's software will shut off transmission and reception during periods of no connectivity to support battery life, which is particularly beneficial in electric vehicles. Most importantly, this will all be happening behind the scenes. So, neither driver nor passengers will be aware of connectivity issues.

In Harman's opinion, what is foreseen for the next five years/decade? What challenges will the industry face to bring these aims to fruition?

The shift towards focusing on 'experiences' will be driving disruption and innovation throughout the next decade. We've spoken about how important it is to be consumer-centric. Today's digital cockpit solutions and future ones will be designed with this in mind. Systems will be smarter and more adaptable, will blend the physical with the digital, and will work seamlessly with applications and services that consumers use throughout their day.

No other industry player has the broad suite of technologies and capabilities that Harman is able to offer. Bringing all the elements together seamlessly in the digital cockpit is a major challenge, and Harman's expertise means we're able to do this and create something truly unique for our partners.

Recent news in brief collected from around Mallorca – Euro Weekly News

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Sea grass

DRIED Posidonia, the sea grass found in abundance around Mallorca which is an important part of the Mediterranean eco system is being used for the first time as insulation on the roof of a hosing association building in Palma.

Forest fire

SOME 75 people were evacuated from their homes after a forest fire broke out in Alcudia on Tuesday February 9. Strong winds had meant that a controlled burning got out of hand and two helicopters were used to put it out.

Up in smoke

MASKS had to be worn at the Son Reus incinerator this Tuesday, not just because of the pandemic but due to the fact that three tons of different drugs seized in Mallorca during 2020 were being destroyed in the flames.

Too mobile

A PHONE tower constructed on the roof of the Post Office in the centre of Palma was blown down due to strong winds that hit Mallorca on Wednesday. The area was cordoned off whilst it was decided how best to remove the damaged tower.

Joining forces

MEMBERS of the now defunct Balearic Resistance have announced that they will join forces with the Sumam political party with the long-term intention of trying to oust the existing ruling party in the Balearic Government.

Rubbish strike

UNIONS representing workers from the Melchor Mascar waste disposal company have advised that with negotiations having broken down they intend to call a strike in the Riaguer district municipalities effective from Thursday February 11.

Bargaining chip

AN unexpected result of Brexit is causing problems for Mallorcan potato growers as they are now required to supply a special certificate and additional information when exporting their product to the UK.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article Recent news in brief collected from around Mallorca.

Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica.

Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene.

Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

COVID Has Reached Antarctica, and Scientists Are Extremely Concerned for Its Wildlife – EcoWatch

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

By Michelle Power and Meagan Dewar

In December, Antarctica lost its status as the last continent free of COVID-19 when 36 people at the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins research station tested positive. The station's isolation from other bases and fewer researchers in the continent means the outbreak is now likely contained.

However, we know all too well how unpredictable and pervasive the virus can be. And while there's currently less risk for humans in Antarctica, the potential for the COVID-19 virus to jump to Antarctica's unique and already vulnerable wildlife has scientists extremely concerned.

We're among a global team of 15 scientists who assessed the risks of the COVID-19 virus to Antarctic wildlife, and the pathways the virus could take into the fragile ecosystem. Antarctic wildlife haven't yet been tested for the COVID-19 virus, and if it does make its way into these charismatic animals, we don't know how it could affect them or the continent's ecosystem stability.

Bernardo O Higgins Station in Antarctica, where 36 people tested positive to COVID-19. Stone Monki/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

The COVID-19 virus is one of seven coronaviruses found in people all have animal origins (dubbed "zoonoses"), and vary in their ability to infect different hosts. The COVID-19 virus is thought to have originated in an animal and spread to people through an unknown intermediate host, while the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004 likely came from raccoon dogs or civets.

Given the general ubiquity of coronaviruses and the rapid saturation of the global environment with the COVID-19 virus, it's paramount we explore the risk for it to spread from people to other animals, known as "reverse zoonoses."

The World Organization for Animal Health is monitoring cases of the COVID-19 virus in animals. To date, only a few species around the globe have been found to be susceptible, including mink, felines (such as lions, tigers and cats), dogs and a ferret.

Whether the animal gets sick and recovers depends on the species. For example, researchers found infected adolescent cats got sick but could fight off the virus, while dogs were much more resistant.

While mink, dogs or cats are not in Antarctica, more than 100 million flying seabirds, 45% of the world's penguin species, 50% of the world's seal populations and 17% of the world's whale and dolphin species inhabit the continent.

In a 2020 study, researchers ran computer simulations and found cetaceans whales, dolphins or porpoises have a high susceptibility of infection from the virus, based on the makeup of their genetic receptors to the virus. Seals and birds had a lower risk of infection.

We concluded that direct contact with people poses the greatest risk for spreading the virus to wildlife, with researchers more likely vectors than tourists. Researchers have closer contact with wildlife: many Antarctic species are found near research stations, and wildlife studies often require direct handling and close proximity to animals.

Tourists, however, are still a concerning vector, as they visit penguin roosts and seal haul-out sites (where seals rest or breed) in large numbers. For instance, a staggering 73,991 tourists traveled to the continent between October 2019 and April 2020, when COVID-19 was just emerging.

Each visitor to Antarctica carries millions of microbial passengers, such as bacteria, and many of these microbes are left behind when the visitors leave. Most are likely benign and probably die off. But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it takes only one powerful organism to jump hosts to cause a pandemic.

There are guidelines for visitors to reduce the risk of introducing infectious microbes. This includes cleaning clothes and equipment before heading to Antarctica and between animal colonies, and keeping at least five meters away from animals.

These rules are no longer enough in COVID times, and more measures must be taken.

The first and most crucial step to protect Antarctic wildlife is controlling human-to-human spread, particularly at research stations. Everyone heading to Antarctica should be tested and quarantined prior to traveling, with regular ongoing tests throughout the season. The fewer people with COVID-19 in Antarctica, the less opportunity the virus has to jump to animal hosts.

Second, close contact with wildlife should be restricted to essential scientific purposes only. All handling procedures should be re-evaluated, given how much we just don't know about the virus.

We recommend all scientific personnel wear appropriate protective equipment (including masks) at all times when handling, or in close proximity to, Antarctic wildlife. Similar recommendations are in place for those working with wildlife in Australia.

Migrating animals that may have picked up COVID-19 from other parts of the world could also spread it to other wildlife in Antarctica. Skuas, for example, migrate to Antarctica from the South American coast, where there are enormous cases of COVID-19.

And then there's the issue of sewage. Around 37% of bases release untreated sewage directly into the Antarctic ecosystem. Meanwhile, an estimated 57,000 to 114,000 liters of sewage per day is dumped from ships into the Southern Ocean.

Fragments of the COVID virus can be found in wastewater, but these fragments aren't infectious, so sewage isn't considered a transmission risk. However, there are other potentially dangerous microbes found in sewage that could be spread to animals, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

We can curb the general risk of microbes from sewage if the Antarctic Treaty formally recognizes microbes as invasive species and a threat to the Antarctic ecosystem. This would support better biosecurity practices and environmental control of waste.

In these early stages of the pandemic, scientists are scrambling to understand complexity of COVID-19 and the virus's characteristics. Meanwhile, the virus continues to evolve.

Until the true risk of cross-species transmission is known, precautions must be taken to reduce the risk of spread to all wildlife. We don't want to see the human footprint becoming an epidemic among Antarctic wildlife, a scenario that can be mitigated by better processes and behaviors.

Michelle Power is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University.

Meagan Dewar is a Lecturer, Federation University Australia.

Disclosure statement: Michelle Power receives funding from The Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Research Council and Inspiring Australia. Meagan Dewar receives funding from Department of Environment and Energy (Australian Antarctic Science).

Reposted with permission from The Conversation.

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COVID Has Reached Antarctica, and Scientists Are Extremely Concerned for Its Wildlife - EcoWatch

Urban Air Mobility Gets a Foot on the Ground with Coventry’s Urban Air Port – Inside Unmanned Systems

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Coventry, in the Electric Heartland

Urban Air Port chose Coventry for the first site due to its location in the heart of the UKs industrial North and because it is a historic hub for the automobile and aerospace industry, with a pool of people and skills that can support the manufacturing industries of the future. The citys location provides easy access within four hours to most parts of the country. In December 2020, Coventry was named the best UK town for electric cars. Air-One will be unveiled during Coventrys UK city of culture celebrations in 2021 and continue to form part of the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Cars need roads. Trains need rails. Planes need airports. eVTOLs will need Urban Air Ports, said Ricky Sandhu, founder and executive chairman of Urban Air Port. Urban Air Port will improve connectivity across our cities, boost productivity and help the UK to take the lead in a whole new clean global economy. Flying cars used to be a futuristic flight of fancy. Air-One will bring clean urban air transport to the masses and unleash a new airborne world of zero emission mobility.

Pamela Cohn, Chief Operating Officer for the Urban Air Mobility Division of Hyundai Motor Group, added, As we advance our eVTOL aircraft programme, development of supporting infrastructure is imperative. Air-One is a unique project that is set to help lead the way in developing a robust, accessible and intermodal infrastructure network for future mobility.

Gary Cutts, UK Research and Innovation Future Flight Challenge Director, continued, Urban Air Port has the potential to revolutionise cities across the world, making them more connected, cleaner and accelerating our green economic recovery. This project epitomises the purpose of the Future Flight Challenge fund and will help to position the UK at the vanguard of electric urban air mobility.

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Urban Air Mobility Gets a Foot on the Ground with Coventry's Urban Air Port - Inside Unmanned Systems

U.S. Subway Platforms Have Highly Polluted Air – EcoWatch

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Researchers from Doon University, Dehra Dun, India, have reported the presence of 15 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in the Ganges near two Hindu pilgrimage cities. These pollutants include caffeine, anti-inflammatory drugs, common antibiotics, beta blockers, antibacterials, and insect repellents.

Over three seasons, Doon scientists studied the river waters of two cities in the rapidly industrializing Himalayan state of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, where the Ganges enters India's northern plains from the Himalayas, and Rishikesh, 21 kilometers away. Haridwar and Rishikesh, with a combined population of 400,000, attract an estimated 20 million tourists and pilgrims annually.

In particular, the scientists analyzed the water at its point of entry into the two cities and at sites before its entry into a sewage treatment plant and after sewage treatment. The study could provide useful baseline data for forecasting and evaluating the efficiency of future antipollution measures of the river basin restoration program, the authors added.

"Compared to previous studies that analyzed samples along various locations along the Ganges, this is the first comprehensive, intensive study in a particular city along the river," said Surendra Suthar, an associate professor at Doon University and one of the study's authors.

PPCP concentrations near the cities varied, with the highest measured concentration being 1,104.84 nanograms per liter. Researchers found higher PPCP concentrations at the lower, more populated reaches of the river. The concentrations, especially of anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics, were also higher in winter, possibly because of decreased biodegradation associated with lower temperatures and inadequate sunlight, the report said. The study also showed that PPCPs in the region were associated with a higher risk of algal blooms and a moderate risk to the health of river fish.

"The high load of PPCPs during summer and winter could be attributed to the excessive tourist visits for recreational activities and spiritual congregations during these seasons," according to the report, to be published in Chemosphere in April.

Paucity of Studies

There are few studies on PPCPs in Indian rivers. "Such studies are expensive, as they require sophisticated instruments," Suthar explained.

"Sewage, treated or untreated, flowing into the rivers is the main polluter," said Keshava Balakrishna, a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology. Sewage and effluent have long been associated with chemical pollution, as people flush medicines, cosmetics, and hygiene products down the toilet or throw them in the trash. The waste ends up in water treatment plants and landfills and then makes its way into water supplies such as the Ganges.

"Aquaculture, agricultural farms, and pharma industries can be other important sources," Balakrishna added.

In 2020, Balakrishna's team reported the presence of PPCPs in two tropical rivers in southwestern India, the Swarna and Netravati, which empty into the Arabian Sea.

A 2017 review by a team of scientists including Balakrishna in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety found higher levels of pharmaceuticals in Indian water treatment plants compared with developed countries. The review also pointed out the paucity of studies in India on the fate of pharmaceutical products in water bodies and their impact on human health, "despite India being one of the world leaders in pharmaceutical production and consumption."

The 2017 review reported that studies from other countries indicated that PPCPs in rivers could accumulate in aquatic organisms and enter the food web. Antibiotic resistance among microbes is the main threat to human and ecological health, Balakrishna said. "Low doses of antibiotics in a river can be consumed by pathogens in the river, [which then] become superbugs, and multiply."

Suthar, too, cautions about both toxicity in the food web and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in pathogens contaminating river waters. "If we add up all the individual contaminant levels for 1 liter of water, the collective dose will be very toxic, especially if they bioaccumulate in organisms, including some rare species in the Ganges such as the Ganges dolphins," he said. "And microbes in the waters will become resistant to the drugs."

A 2019 global review of PPCPs in rivers reported that "no global legal maximum environmental concentrations exist for pharmaceutically active compounds," despite poor understanding of the combined acute and chronic effects of PPCPs on flora, fauna, and human health.

The global review went on to say that primary and secondary wastewater treatment plants "generally are unable to remove these pollutants, leading to their migration into drinking water supplies," and recommended advanced tertiary water treatment processes, such as oxidation and adsorption. It also suggested advanced methods for accurate and continuous monitoring of pharmaceuticals in the environment and strict regulations for effluent release.

In India, most antipollution efforts are directed at surface water treatment and focus on parameters such as chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, nitrates, and bacteria, said Suthar. "We need a policy that looks at PPCPs too."

Chemical Footprints

The source of the Ganges is the Gangotri Glacier, high in the Himalayas less than 200 kilometers from Haridwar. The recent findings on PPCPs in the Ganges add to research documenting chemical and microplastic pollution throughout the mountain range, including the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, said Kimberley Miner, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a research assistant professor at the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. "Our team found PFAS [polyfluoroalkyl substances], DDT [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane], and toxic metals on the mountain, suggesting that the chemical footprint left by trekkers may be as large as the visible trash and pollution footprint."

The new Ganges research also echoes recent studies tracing PPCPs on European glaciers, where researchers traced chemical pollutants to the use of perfumes in personal care products like soap. Perfumed soaps and ointments are also associated with PPCPs in Haridwar and Rishikesh, where mass bathing events are part of tourism and pilgrimage activities.

This story originally appeared in Eos and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.

Congress newest subcommittee is focusing on cyber troops and JEDI – Federal News Network

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

The House Armed Services Committee has a new subcommittee this year, one aimed purely at the growing need for innovation in the Defense Department and the continued prominence of cyber as a dominant means of warfare.

The first-ever chairman of the Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems Subcommittee, Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), said over the next legislative session the panel will pursue an aggressive agenda focusing on cyber force structure, the newest combatant commands, artificial intelligence, cyber infrastructure and supply chain safety.

The era of technology has been growing at a rapid pace and becoming more and more important in the Pentagon, in Pentagon budgets and planning, Langevin told Federal News Network in an exclusive interview. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) felt we needed more scope and depth regarding these issues. Cyber and AI information operations have become more and more important. We want to make sure that the right resources and attention is being given to oversight in all these areas.

In the most recent defense authorization act, Congress included more than 70 cyber-related provisions, so many that the committee had to create a cyber title in the legislation.

Our success in great power competition is going to rely on sophisticated coordinated digital capabilities, Langevin said. The House Armed Services Committee needed to dedicate staff and resources to face this challenge and exhibit the oversight that men and women in uniform deserves.

Langevin said one of his first priorities as chairman will be to ensure that DoD has the right amount of cyber forces.

Currently, DoD has a Cyber Mission Force of 133 teams, four Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber and one Cyber National Mission Force. Those forces focus on protecting DoDs information network and on defensive and offensive cyberspace operations.

I think we need to probably grow the national mission teams as we get more into defending forward, Langevin said. Thats the smallest number of teams that we have over the scope of the cyber mission force. Were going to be looking at this. Theres going to be a force structure assessment that U.S. Cyber Command is going to have to do and we want to make sure that we get this right.

Langevin wants to look further into roles of CYBERCOM, U.S. Space Command and the geographic commands to see if they need to streamline.

In terms of CYBERCOM, Langevin said hes interested in looking into how the combatant command and the National Security Agency are led. Currently, one person heads both of the organizations. There has been much discussion over whether there needs to be an individual head for each of the entities.

It may come a point where we split the hat, having two heads of those different agencies, but right now, Im not a fan of splitting the hat, Langevin said. You need that neutral arbiter to go strike the balance between intelligence and operations. What are the equities of NSA, their concerns? Whats the right steps to take in terms of defending forward and exposure to detection and a whole host of things that we have to balance the right way.

Langevin said there is value in keeping the roles together.

I need NSA and U.S. Cyber Command linked in a way where one will follow the work of the other, he said. I need CYBERCOM and NSA leader Gen. Paul Nakasone being the arbiter between offense and defense. I think his intelligence collection is important.

Langevin pointed to election security as one area where intelligence and operations need to work together and benefit from being housed under one roof.

Another issue Langevin will be keeping a close eye on, along with many others in the tech world, is the Pentagons JEDI contract which has gone through considerable contracting issues. The program is supposed to bring a general cloud to DoD.

Langevin said the bureaucracy, caused in part by drama between companies competing for the contract, is holding up the military from a much needed resource.

It really it troubles me, it frustrates me, he said. I understand this was a large contract. Theres obviously going to be challenges when the losing team doesnt go their way. But eventually weve got to make a decision to move forward on this. I hope that will prevail, and well get this done in the courts. And then when we get it green lighted it really does need to be a single cloud and we cant break it apart for multiple vendors.

As far as legislation goes, the chairman wants to continue implementing recommendations from the Cyber Solarium Commission and the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

Langevin said he will also be focusing on the Cyber Diplomacy bill, which establishes an international cyberspace policy office in the State Department.

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Congress newest subcommittee is focusing on cyber troops and JEDI - Federal News Network

End the war on whistleblowers – The Week

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

President Trump was the most aggressive prosecutor of whistleblowers of any president in American history. The previous record was set by President Obama, but the Trump administration launched as many prosecutions in four years as Obama did in eight.

President Biden, as part of his campaign to undo many of his predecessor's worst policies, should pardon most of these folks, or at least commute their sentences. Disclosing classified information that the public deserves to know does not deserve a lengthy prison sentence.

Of all the candidates for a pardon, Reality Winner's case is most obviously convincing, though as yet has not gotten the wide attention it deserves. She did indeed leak classified documents to The Intercept (which horribly botched its security protocols and basically handed her to the FBI, though she probably would have been caught eventually), which is against the law. But the exposure of these documents did not even slightly harm national security.

Here's what seems to have happened. Winner listened to the Intercepted podcast in early 2017, including one episode in which former Intercept co-founder and journalist Glenn Greenwald expressed skepticism about the idea that Russia had hacked the DNC and John Podesta to boost Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign. Therefore she sent the publication classified material showing the NSA had evidence that not only was Russia behind those hacks, it had actually successfully hacked into an election software vendor. For that she was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. It was the longest sentence in history for simply leaking to the press and very obviously related to Trump's desire to punish people who pointed out his connection to the Russia hack.

Any reasonable American should favor her release because the public has a right to know when U.S. intelligence agencies think a hostile foreign power is trying to compromise America's electoral machinery. At bottom, she was simply doing what the NSA is supposed to do protect the country. Indeed, as Kerry Howley (a journalist who has been following the Winner story closely) points out, when The Intercept published its story on the leak, the federal agency in charge of assisting state election authorities put out a bulletin informing state governments what had happened for the first time. Several states were outraged that they hadn't been informed earlier, and justifiably so. It's not the first time that intelligence agencies' compulsive secrecy and over-classification has gotten in the way of doing their purported jobs.

In any case, all the important details Winner leaked were later published in the Mueller report. Her action was carried out in good faith; she did no harm and at least some good. And anyone who simply believes in proportional punishment must agree that, even on the harshest possible reading of events, Winner has already paid for what she did and then some. She should be pardoned immediately.

Edward Snowden's case may be less convincing for many. He, of course, is the former NSA contractor who leaked details of the agency's then-dragnet surveillance to Laura Poitras, Greenwald, and other reporters at The Guardian back in 2013. That was a more traditional whistleblower-style activity of exposing a program that was legally and constitutionally dubious, but nominally dedicated to protecting national security.

In reality, intelligence agencies later admitted in classified documents that the dragnet program was basically useless. Snowden's revelations led a U.S. court to declare the program illegal, and helped lead to NSA reform becoming law proving beyond question the public value of what he did. And once again, seven years being exiled in a rather dangerous foreign country (he has been stuck in Russia since 2013) is severe enough punishment on its own. He should be pardoned and allowed to return home.

Julian Assange is a more noxious personality, but the current U.S. effort to extradite and prosecute him should be dropped (following Obama administration precedent, which Biden so far has refused to do). Assange may have actively assisted Russia in its efforts to hack Democrats' emails in 2016, and he did push the disgusting Seth Rich conspiracy theory, but the Trump administration's moves against Assange had nothing to do with those things. Instead he is being prosecuted mostly for publishing classified material from Chelsea Manning a decade ago which, if successful, would blast a hole in the First Amendment and would put other journalists who do the same thing in every major news publication at risk.

There are at least five more people in jail, on probation, or facing some other punishment for clear whistleblower activity under Trump:

- John Fry is a former IRS employee who leaked Suspicious Activity Reports (a document in the Treasury department detailing suspect bank transactions) involving Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, and recently got five years probation. Revealing corruption among the ex-president's associates is good and he should be pardoned.

- Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards is a former Treasury employee who leaked SARs detailing suspect transactions from Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to BuzzFeed News, and faces possible prison time. She should be pardoned for the same reason as Fry.

- Daniel Hale is a former intelligence analyst who leaked documents about drone warfare to The Intercept, and faces years in prison if convicted. The American people deserve to know about the operations of the U.S. military. He should be pardoned.

- Terry Albury, who was the only Black FBI agent in a detail assigned to look into the Somali-American community, sent documents about endemic racism in the agency to The Intercept, and was sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2018. The problem of racism in law enforcement speaks for itself these days; he should be pardoned.

- Navy Captain Brett Crozier commanded an aircraft carrier and was fired for desperately pointing out the fact his ship had a massive COVID-19 outbreak, which embarrassed Trump. He should get his job back.

President Trump wildly abused his pardon power deploying it mainly to protect his criminal friends from prosecution. President Biden could make a clean break with Trump's horrible reign by putting the pardon back to its intended use, and ending the U.S. government's war on whistleblowers.

The rest is here:

End the war on whistleblowers - The Week

‘There is a demand for Live Casino in LatAm, which means an opportunity for growth’ – Yogonet International

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

an Live Casino as a vertical continue to increase its popularity in the region as land-based casinos reopen?

The shutdown of sports and indeed, land-based casinos in 2020 drove unprecedented numbers of customers online in what was undoubtedly a challenging time for all. Players who would be intimately familiar with casino classics such as Blackjack or Roulette suddenly found their only route to enjoy such games was online casinos, in a live dealer environment.

Naturally, some players will return instantly to their favoured gaming venues when they reopen, but for some, the benefits that Live dealer games can bring would see them continue to play Blackjack or Roulette at an online casino instead. Especially now, when land-based casinos in some LatAm territories are being forced to close their doors again as a result of the second wave of the pandemic.

Retaining and acquiring customers for any vertical has its challenges and opportunities, but with Live games and all online casino products being put in front of more eyes than ever before, players already have been exposed to the product. There is a demand there for this kind of entertainment, which means an opportunity for growth within the LatAm market.

How vital is it to be able to offer a variety of igaming experiences, rather than just supplying a single vertical, such as slots or Live Casino?

Having a multi-product portfolio allows us to react to changing regulation while also bringing numerous solutions to new and existing markets. Our slot portfolio has allowed us to significantly expand our reach in Latin America but Live Casino and Bingo products have also gained large swathes of traction in certain markets. The same goes for our new Virtual Sports portfolio.

It also allows us to focus our innovation on a wider stretch of product ranges so all players can enjoy them. A dedicated Live Casino or Bingo player may not be that excited if we have an innovative new slot feature or a new Virtual Sports game, and vice-versa. By creating products for all players, we can stand out further in the market, while offering significant cross-sell value for our partners.

An example of this is our upcoming new Live Casino game, Mega Roulette. Combining a casino staple with random multipliers, similarly to what you would experience in a slot game, we have created a dynamic new product that were very excited about, as are our partners.

What will Mega Roulette bring to the market that allows it to stand out?

Mega Roulette takes one of the most popular Live Casino games and adds a simple yet thrilling innovation the Mega Multiplier. On every spin, between one and five multipliers, with a value ranging from 50 to 500x, will be applied to randomly selected bets, significantly increasing win potential. The base gameplay remains instantly recognisable to roulette fans, while like all our Live Casino games, Mega Roulette is broadcast from a state-of-the-art studio specially built for the games requirements, with professionally trained hosts, unique visual effects and immersive sound. At Pragmatic Play we strive to create new gaming experiences and Mega Roulette takes a staple title and adds our own twist, appealing to both fans of the traditional and those looking to try new, engaging titles.

What more can we expect from Pragmatic Play in this vertical in the near future?

We continue to invest in our portfolio, across all verticals. Aside from the previously mentioned Mega Roulette, which we are extremely excited about, there is a lot more to come. We will heavily focus on our Live Casino portfolio, while continuing to launch slots at a fast pace. We now have four Virtual Sports games as well as a Bingo network fully available for clients in the region. Plus, we keep adding Latin American operators to our global Drops & Wins promotion, which gives players chances to win shares of the massive /2,500,000 in prizes with just a spin. Thats all we can say but stay tuned as it is set to be a thrilling year.

When will it be my turn? | MN South News – New Prague Times

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

That seems to be the question everyone is asking themselves: When is it my turn to get the COVID-19 vaccination?I open my online health care portal almost weekly to see if I have received the message from my healthcare provider that Im next to get the shot, poke, or jab, or whatever you want to call it.Or maybe my vaccine instructions will come in the mailbox from the state of Minnesota?In a perfect world, I can picture this arriving in the mail or email: Hello, Minnesotan. Congratulations! You are the 634,892nd citizen in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. You can expect your first vaccination shot between 7:05 a.m. and 6:32 p.m. on April 28. Please respond to the vaccination site listed below and wait your turn. Your vaccine ID code is 245XTR987ES72. This is your only notice. If you have any questions, please call the number below. Calls will be monitored for quality assurance.When is it my turn?If I dont get my shot until August, it will take me back to grade school days. It will feel like recess where the popular kids are picking their teams for kickball. (Do they play that still?).Standing against the fence in a row with my classmates, I would pray someone would pick me.Please dont let me be the last one, I would say in my head.Luckily, I was never the last.OK, I was second to last, but never THE last.If it takes a long time to get my letter from the state, or my notification in my portal, I would expect it to say something like this, Weve scraped enough vaccine from 30 vials to vaccinate you. We added a little water to get a full shot, but you should be good-to-go after you receive it.Im not in a hurry to get the shot. I still have to get the shingles vaccine, which I have heard is akin to having a truck roll over your arm, then backing up and rolling over the rest of your body. Its not pleasant. I also know Im playing Russian roulette by putting this off.I want the COVID vaccines to go to the teachers, special needs kids, grocery store employees, retail people and warehouse workers. Ive gone this far without getting the crappy bug, so I must be doing something right. I have piles of masks in my coat pocket and every nook and cranny of the car.I wash my hands so much my fingerprints are fading. I only touch my face after I shower, and then its with a mask on.Im only kidding, but it will be nice to get back to normal, after we are all vaccinated. When that happens, is anyones guess.

Originally posted here:

When will it be my turn? | MN South News - New Prague Times

The remote working revolution – PMLiVE

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

The listless eyes, slumped shoulders and steady rattle of a commuter train are the go-to images of frustration and unfulfilled promise for movie-makers. Commuting is cinemas badge of boredom.

But film-makers may have to seek new symbols to portray grinding monotony as the pandemic has severely dented the commute. It has also recalibrated the rhythms of the working day and turned attics, bedrooms, garden sheds and any spare space into office modules.

Working from Home now has an acronym (WFH) and the desktop revolution is creating new office habits.

For many, it has been liberating; for most it has presented a fresh set of challenges including creating boundaries between professional and personal life and navigating domestic distractions such as stray pets and children wandering into the Zoom field of vision.

Maintaining corporate culture

A study by Stanford University demonstrated that WFH raises productivity, reduces absenteeism and decreases employee attrition but companies have to maintain their culture: the corporate DNA that is ingrained by personal contact and example.

It is a vital essence for healthcare communicators and marketeers and Angela Young, chief people officer at Lucid Group, the global healthcare communications agency, said the company is pulling every lever to help staff benefit from the experience and stay tightly involved with new projects and business goals.

Conveying office culture across a multitude of screens takes ingenuity and application, and management teams need to stay connected with employees to pivot physical isolation into inclusion.

Lucid was an early mover to home working after one member of staff was diagnosed with COVID-19 in February last year.

Within 48 hours, we had moved fully to a remote workforce and transitioned people to work at home and we then increased the cadence of our communications with staff, and between staff, dramatically, added Young.

We realised that teleworking was different for different people so we needed to be flexible to make sure everyone was set up technically and that we operated with the same energy and enthusiasm.

Water cooler and coffee machine moments were replaced by virtual quizzes, sharing photos of lunches, specific joke days and regular contacts with management to maintain work and social continuity.

We injected a lot of fun into the connections and weve created much more of a community spirit across the group with connections that might not otherwise have been there, added Angela.

That is good for morale but those connections also lead to work conversations that generate ideas.

The CEO Dennis OBrien and management teams are really conscious about maintaining our distinct culture through this.

Coffee roulette and well-being webinars

Lucid Group took on around 80 new staff during the pandemic but the new, collaborative dynamics of remote working accelerated their integration. The company also hired external experts to run well-being webinars and facilitated contact groups of employees. They found the benefits went way beyond corporate performance.

It has brought a humanity into the workplace, said Young. We are all working from home and traditional divides have dissolved. We also have much more fluidity around client-partner relationships because we can have conversations about new puppies or looking after children as well as work projects.

There is also a warm glow around the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors created by the astonishing speed of vaccine R&D and delivery, and Young added: There is incredible pride in what is happening. We are working with a couple of clients on COVID-related projects and there is a sense of purpose that reminds us why this company was set up: to transform lives and improve patient outcomes.

Another powerhouse global healthcare communications agency, 90TEN, also got creative with coffee roulette, which randomly placed staff in social groups for catch-ups, movement challenges, newsletters, TV and film recommendations, quizzes and WhatsApp groups for project teams. It also strengthened its buddy system and trained staff to be mental health ambassadors.

It was reset for all of us, thinking and learning how we could better integrate and keep a work-life balance, said Claire Long, Deputy Managing Director, Communications, at the London-based firm. Coffee roulette is fun because a random group generator pulls people together and you have a chance to chat with people you may not have seen for a while or may not have spent much time with before, so it is a great way of staying in touch.

You will never replace face-to-face and that energy that comes from being together and sharing ideas, but we have learned to adapt and there is great momentum in the company.

Everybody is used to seeing kids entering rooms or cats walking across desks during a meeting and that is quite liberating. You can be professional but also glimpse a bit of peoples personal lives which is a positive. It is a nice leveller because we are all just people trying to do the best we can in difficult circumstances.

Breaking the monotony and staying connected

90Ten encourages staff to take regular screen breaks and walk during the day to relieve the repetitive elements of screen life. Sabrina Gomersall, the companys Head and Director of Client Service for its PR division, said: When we went into the first lockdown, it was clear that we needed to say connected and we made a concerted effort to check in with people.

"We quickly understood that everyones experience of lockdown is different. Some people are having very different struggles to others: people with kids, people in one-bedroom flats by themselves, people in flat shares, people with tiny bedrooms.

Being flexible and staying in contact with staff and clients and having those touch points, even though they arent face-to-face, is so important. You need those human moments because everyone is in this together.

Long added: Being visible and reinforcing your culture who you are and what you stand for is important to a business. At 90Ten we have a very strong culture that has been built by face-to-face meetings but now we have to try harder to keep that culture in place and make sure all staff feel involved.

We have a new business plan for 2021 and our priorities are to operate as a team working for a common goal and we want to make sure everyone is connected to that.

Office life as we know it

Vaccination programmes are gathering pace and the outlook for resuming normal service is promising, but will people come back to the office? Facebook expects around 50% of its workers to be remote by 2025 and the chief executive of a Canadian e-commerce company tweeted to its 5,000 workers: Office-centricity is over.

But rumours of a complete end to the commute may be premature, as leading recruitment agency boss George Buckland believes that the pandemic will not tilt office life from its axis.

I dont see a seismic shift as most companies were already offering decent levels of flexibility and, ultimately, life sciences run on collaboration in person, he said. New ideas and learning about new projects are best done in person and most people actually enjoy the office environment.

They may moan a bit but they enjoy meeting people and working collaboratively as it is an essence of their spirit and personality. We all need that face-to-face contact.

His central London-based agency, George Buckland Recruitment, predicts that many companies would not be able to sustain current levels of remote engagement once the office doors are fully open again.

Firms are working really hard to keep everyone engaged but it is going to be difficult and draining to run two systems, one for the office and one for those at home, at the same time, he added.

I dont think there will be lots of people wanting to work predominantly from home and those that do will have to consider the risks of feeling slightly removed and whether that means they could be overlooked for inclusion in discussions, projects or even promotions.

Flexible working is important and it normally comes up very early in the recruitment process with candidates being clear about what they want and, for most, there are companies that have the structure that suits their needs. And, lets remember, some people still prefer to work in companies that have defined routines and hierarchies and some companies, such as start- ups, can only be so flexible.

How companies configure working patterns and head office layouts will shape their ability to retain and attract talent, and the pandemic will be viewed not as an act of survival but an exercise in evolution.

Continued here:

The remote working revolution - PMLiVE

How To Solve The Luck & Probability Easter Egg In Control – TheGamer

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

This brain-teaser will have you guessing, but not with our guide.

Control has tons of trippy moments and an atmosphere that feels straight out of The X-Files. Heck, even the game's map is mind-bending, allowing players to explore the Oldest House both horizontally and vertically.

RELATED:Ranking Every Boss Fight In Control (& How To Beat Them)

So in a game like this, you can expect tons of secret and easter eggs waiting for you to find them. One of them is the Luck & Probability Easter puzzle hidden behind a Level 5 security door in the Luck & Probability department of the Research sector. However, before you can head inside to try to solve the puzzle, you'll need a Level 5 security clearance card to enter the area.

Moreover, this puzzle isn't just for fun or to test your intelligence. If you manage to solve it, you'll unlock a golden suit Jesse can wear, and she definitely pulls off the golden look.

All you need to solve the puzzle is to make the roulette ball land on the number 7. But how are you suppose to manipulate Jesse's luck to land on the number? Well, reading the manifest will teach you which objects you'll have to manipulate. There's also a whiteboard in the room where you can learn what to do with three of the six objects there.

However, if you don't want to spend time figuring everything out for yourself, here's what you'll need to do with each item.

As seen on the whiteboard, all lightbulbs must be turned on to increase Jesse's luck. There are four in the room; three of them are near each other at the room entrance, while the last one is opposite the roulette wheel.

According to superstition, a horseshoe will be a lucky charm as long as it is facing an upward orientation. So that's how the horseshoe in the room should be.

First, you'll need to pick up the clover that's in a white planter outside of the experiment room. Then just bring it to the room and place it in the other white planter that's near the TV.

If you've ever been to a Chinese restaurant, you'll know this little statue should be waving to anyone who comes inside. All you have to do is interact with the cat and make sure its paw moves up and down. As a fun fact, this little guy might be a reference to the Maneki-Neko puzzle introduced in The Foundation expansion.

There's nothing you can do to the elephant, so just leave it there as you found it.

This one is near the entrance of the office. All you have to do is grab it with Jesse's launch ability and bring it inside the room. Thanks to the whiteboard, you know that the object has to be within two feet of the roulette wheel.

Finally, it is time to check if all of your hard work paid off and Jesse's luck is high enough. You can now spin the wheel and cross your fingers, so it lands in the lucky number 7. But, before you do that, recheck the whiteboard and pay attention to the drawings in the far right; they tell you that whoever spins the wheel has to be outside of the red carpet so the mojo can properly work.

With that in mind, activate the wheel and test Jesse's luck. You'll notice if something didn't go as planned because a fire extinguisher will explore, the sprinklers will turn on in the room, or a phone will start ringing.

However, if the number 7 is rolled, you'll get the golden suit, two ability points, and crafting materials.

NEXT:10 Hidden Plotlines Everyone Missed In Control

Mario's Boos Are Based On A Super Mario Designer's Wife

Miguel Amaro is a highly motivated person with a passion for knowledge and gaming who's finally giving his newfound interest in writing a try. Before working as a writer, Miguel earned a Business and Administration degree and worked in Marketing. He is also trying to get to High Warlord in Classic WoW.

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How To Solve The Luck & Probability Easter Egg In Control - TheGamer

Lottery may be considered in state – The Brewton Standard – Brewton Standard

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Alabama Senator Del Marsh has released a summary of a education lottery proposal for the State of Alabama.

Marsh, has proposed a plan to expand gambling options in the state that would include a lottery aimed at funding education as well as five casinos that would offer typical casino gaming as well as sports betting.

According to the proposal, the revenue from the lottery and casinos would fund scholarships, help fund broadband internet access, mental and rural healthcare as well as other programs. License fees and taxes associated with the gambling options would also be used to support those programs.

The proposed five casinos would pay a 20% tax rate and license fees, although those fees and taxes would not apply to casinos currently owned and operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians as operated on tribal lands.

Four of the five casinos would be at greyhound tracks already in place in the state. Those tracks include Mobile Greyhound Park, Greentrack in Greene County, VictoryLand on Macon County and the Birmingham Race Course.

Under the plan, the casinos would have abilities to operate full casino-style gaming such as slot machines, roulette and blackjack. Sports betting would also be an option.

To learn more from the summary submitted by Marsh, see the proposed bill in the gallery.

Lottery may be considered in state - The Brewton Standard - Brewton Standard

Precision Medicine Platform Aims to Advance Cancer Gene Therapies – HealthITAnalytics.com

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

February 11, 2021 -A team from Cleveland Clinic has developed a precision medicine platform designed to accelerate cancer gene therapies and genome-informed drug discovery.

In a study published in Nature Genetics, researchers describe the My Personal Mutanome (MPM) platform. The platform features an interactive database that offers insight into the role of somatic mutations in cancer acquired mutations that cant be passed to offspring and prioritizes mutations that may be responsive to drug therapy.

Although advances in sequencing technology have bestowed a wealth of cancer genomic data, the capabilities to bridge the translational gap between large-scale genomic studies and clinical decision making were lacking, said Feixiong Cheng, PhD, assistant staff in theGenomic Medicine Institute, and the studys lead author.

MPM is a powerful tool that will aid in the identification of novel functional mutations/genes, drug targets and biomarkers for cancer, thus accelerating the progress towards cancer precision medicine.

The team used clinical data to integrate nearly 500,000 mutations from over 10,800 tumor exomes the protein-coding part of the genome across 33 cancer types into the platform. The team then systematically mapped the mutations to over 94,500 protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and over 311,000 functional protein sites where proteins physically bind with one another. Researchers then incorporated patient survival and drug response data.

The platform analyzes the relationships between genetic mutations, proteins, PPIs, protein functional sites, and drugs to help users easily search for clinically actionable mutations. The MPM database includes three interactive visualization tools that offer two- and three-dimensional views of somatic mutations and their associated survival and drug responses.

According to the researchers, previous studies have linked disease pathogenesis and progression to mutations and variations that disturb the human interactome, the complex network of proteins and PPIs that impact cellular function. Mutations can disrupt the network by directly changing the normal function of a protein, known as nodetic effect, or by altering PPIs, known as edgetic effect.

Additionally, in a separate, previous study, a team of researchers found that somatic mutations were highly enriched where PPIs occurred. The group also demonstrated that PPI-perturbing mutations were significantly correlated with drug sensitivity or resistance as well as poor survival rate in cancer patients.

The results from another study published inNature Genetics, which was a collaboration between Cleveland Clinic and several other institutions, motivated us to develop the mutanome platform, said Cheng.

OurNature Geneticsfindings, along with previous research, provide proof-of-concept of both nodetic and edgetic effects of somatic mutations in cancer. What we learned from that study inspired us to develop a systems biology tool that, by mapping mutations to PPI interfaces and protein functional sites and integrating survival and drug response data, identifies cancer-driving and actionable mutations to guide personalized treatment and drug discovery.

Researchers expect that MPM will lead to a better understanding of mutations at the human interactome network level. This could lead to new insights in cancer genomics and treatments, ultimately achieving the goal of cancer precision medicine.

The team will continue to update MPM annually in order to provide researchers and physicians with the most comprehensive, complete data available. Researchers also plan to apply advanced analytics technologies to their insights to improve treatment development for other conditions.

OurNature Geneticsstudy also demonstrates the nodetic and edgetic effects of mutations/variations in other diseases, said Cheng.

As a next step, we are developing new artificial intelligence algorithms to translate these genomic medicine findings into human genome-informed drug target identification and precision medicine drug discovery (i.e., protein-protein inhibitors) for other complex diseases, including heart disease and Alzheimers disease.

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Precision Medicine Platform Aims to Advance Cancer Gene Therapies - HealthITAnalytics.com

Celebrate the Third Annual Medical Genetics Awareness Week April 13-16, 2021 – PRNewswire

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --The third annual Medical Genetics Awareness Week will be celebrated April 1316, 2021. Through Medical Genetics Awareness Week, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) aims to promote awareness of the importance of medical genetics professionals on the healthcare team, including medical geneticists, laboratory geneticists, genetic counselors, nurses and physician assistants. The theme of Medical Genetics Awareness Week is "Celebrating the Contributions of the Entire Medical Genetics Team to Patient Care and Public Health."

New for 2021 are high-quality face masks and a Zoom virtual background to help individuals "Share Your Medical Genetics Pride." Participants can share their pictures to social media wearing a Medical Genetics Awareness Week face mask (free for ACMG members) or a Medical Genetics Awareness Week hashtag button; using a new Medical Genetics Awareness Week Zoom virtual background; or displaying a Medical Genetics Awareness Week sticker.

Since 2019, Medical Genetics Awareness Week has brought together people from across the globe to celebrate the important work of medical genetics professionals. Medical Genetics Awareness Week is celebrated to recognize the critical contributions that medical genetics healthcare professionals make in the diagnosis, management and prevention of genetic diseases, and the difference these professionals make in the lives of patients and families. Medical Genetics Awareness Week is also intended to educate other healthcare professionals and students and trainees on who medical geneticists are, how they are trained and what they do in the clinic and laboratory.

Also new for 2021 are themed days that will include a Diversity Day and a Student and Trainee Day. Follow Medical Genetics Awareness Week on social media by searching the #MedicalGeneticsAwareness hashtagand sign up to receive news and updates about Medical Genetics Awareness Week by clicking here. Log in (or create a free ACMG account) and, on the privacy preferences page, opt in to receive news and updates about Medical Genetics Awareness Week.

"Medical genetics and genomics is now deeply wedged into nearly all disciplines of medicine," said ACMG President Anthony R. Gregg, MD, MBA, FACOG, FACMG. "It is a natural extension that we remind the public and all healthcare professionals that those of us who practice medical genetics in clinics, clinical laboratories and research environments work tirelessly and with great enthusiasm. Our singular common goal is to bring accurate genetic information to the bedside that will improve people's lives."

Events related to Medical Genetics Awareness Week will be held during the ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting A Virtual Experience, April 1316, 2021, but participants don't need to be a meeting registrant to participate in the week's activities. The ACMG Annual Meeting is the largest conference specifically for clinical and laboratory geneticists in the United States. Those interested in collaborating with ACMG to celebrate Medical Genetics Awareness Week, holding their own events or becoming an "ambassador" for medical genetics are invited to email ACMG Communications Coordinator Reymar Santos at [emailprotected]for more information.

"Medical genetics is for all of us," said Max Muenke, MD, FACMG, ACMG'schief executive officer. "I am delighted to celebrate my colleagues in this important field: genetic counselors, laboratory geneticists, medical geneticists, and other allied healthcare professionals who are committed to optimal patient care."

Visit the Medical Genetics Awareness Week web pageson ACMG's website for resources and tips designed to support the week's celebrationsand to join the Medical Genetics Awareness Week email list. When posting on social media, participants are encouraged to tag @TheACMG and include the following hashtags in posts related to Medical Genetics Awareness Week:

#MedicalGeneticsAwareness#IamaMedicalGeneticist#FutureGeneticsProfessional#IamaLabGeneticist#IamaGeneticCounselor#IamaGeneticsPA#IamaNurseinGenetics#IamaGeneticsNP

About the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) and ACMG Foundation

Founded in 1991, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) is the only nationally recognized medical society dedicated to improving health through the clinical practice of medical genetics and genomics and the only medical specialty society in the US that represents the full spectrum of medical genetics disciplines in a single organization. The ACMG is the largest membership organization specifically for medical geneticists, providing education, resources and a voice for more than 2,400 clinical and laboratory geneticists, genetic counselors and other healthcare professionals, nearly 80% of whom are board certified in the medical genetics specialties. ACMG's mission is to improve health through the clinical and laboratory practice of medical genetics as well as through advocacy, education and clinical research, and to guide the safe and effective integration of genetics and genomics into all of medicine and healthcare, resulting in improved personal and public health. Four overarching strategies guide ACMG's work: 1) to reinforce and expand ACMG's position as the leader and prominent authority in the field of medical genetics and genomics, including clinical research, while educating the medical community on the significant role that genetics and genomics will continue to play in understanding, preventing, treating and curing disease; 2) to secure and expand the professional workforce for medical genetics and genomics; 3) to advocate for the specialty; and 4) to provide best-in-class education to members and nonmembers. Genetics in Medicine, published monthly, is the official ACMG journal. ACMG's website (www.acmg.net) offers resources including policy statements, practice guidelines, educational programs and a 'Find a Genetic Service' tool. The educational and public health programs of the ACMG are dependent upon charitable gifts from corporations, foundations and individuals through the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine.

Kathy Moran, MBA[emailprotected]

SOURCE American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics

http://www.acmg.net

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Celebrate the Third Annual Medical Genetics Awareness Week April 13-16, 2021 - PRNewswire

The race to treat a rare, fatal syndrome may help others with common disorders like diabetes – Science Magazine

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

Misfolded proteins (orange) in the endoplasmic reticulum may play a role in Wolfram syndromes many symptoms.

By Mitch LeslieFeb. 11, 2021 , 2:00 PM

Maureen Marshall-Doss says the first sign that her vision was deteriorating came when she misidentified the color of a dress. At a backyard get-together about 20 years ago, the Indianapolis resident pointed out an attractive yellow dress another woman was wearing. You see that as yellow? Shes wearing a pink dress, Marshall-Doss recalls her husband responding.

Today, Marshall-Doss is virtually blind. With help from custom made eyeglasses that magnify objects 500 times, I can see shapes, she says. But she can no longer drive and had to quit the job she loved as a school librarian. Along with her dimming vision, she has type 1 diabetes and has lost her sense of taste and smell.

Marshall-Doss is one of 15,000 to 30,000 people around the world with Wolfram syndrome, a genetic disease. For decades, the condition remained enigmatic, untreatable, and fatal. But in the past few years, insights into its mechanism have begun to pay off, leading to the first clinical trials of drugs that might slow the illness and sparking hopes that gene therapy and the CRISPR DNA-editing tool might rectify the underlying genetic flaws. Here is a rare disease that the basic science is telling us how to treat, says physiologist Barbara Ehrlich of the Yale School of Medicine.

The research could also aid more than the relatively few patients with Wolfram syndrome. Driving the diseases many symptoms is a malfunction of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the multichambered organelle that serves as a finishing school for many cellular proteins. Known as ER stress, the same problem helps propel far more common illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinsons disease, and Alzheimers disease. Wolfram syndrome is the prototype of an endoplasmic reticulum disorder, says medical geneticist Fumihiko Fumi Urano of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Because Wolfram syndrome is simpler, says Scott Oakes, a cell biologist and pathologist at the University of Chicago, researchers think it could illuminate the mechanisms of other ER-disrupting diseases, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

In the late 1930s,four children with diabetes were going blind, and doctors were stumped. Like many other people in the United States struggling through the Great Depression, the siblings ate a paltry diet, subsisting on potatoes, bread, oatmeal, and a little milk. But after examining three of the children, Donald Wolfram, a physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and an ophthalmologist colleague ruled out malnutrition as the cause of their puzzling condition. Lead poisoning and syphilisthough common enoughwerent to blame, either. When Wolfram and his partner wrote up the cases in 1938, they concluded that the symptoms could be manifestations of an hereditary or acquired cerebral lesion.

The physicians were right that the syndrome eventually named for Wolfram is hereditary. Recessive mutations in the gene for a protein called wolframin are responsible for most cases, with glitches in a second gene causing most of the rest. However, the pair was wrong to think the defect lies only in the brain. Instead, the symptoms stem from widespread cell death. Its definitely a disease that affects the whole body, Marshall-Doss says.

The first sign of the illness, appearing when patients are children, is usually diabetes mellitus, or faulty sugar metabolism, sparked by the demise of insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas. Most patients also develop the unrelated condition diabetes insipidus, in which the pituitary gland doesnt dole out enough of a hormone that helps control the bodys fluid balance, causing the kidneys to produce huge amounts of urine.

Mutations in the gene for wolframin disrupt the endoplasmic reticulum and lead to cell death throughout the body, causing a range of symptoms.

V. Altounian/Science

Ellie White, 19, of Centennial, Colorado, who was diagnosed with Wolfram syndrome 12 years ago, says she hasnt had a full night of sleep since she was 3 years old. She gets up again and again to use the bathroom and monitor her blood sugar.

Yet she and other patients say that as disruptive as those problems are, they are not the diseases most dismaying consequence. The biggest symptom of Wolfram syndrome that affects me the most is my vision, White says. Because neurons in the optic nerve perish, patients usually go blind within 10 years of their first visual symptoms.

Other neurons die as well. As the disease progresses, brain cells expire, and walking, breathing, and swallowing become difficult. Most people with Wolfram syndrome die before age 40, often because they can no longer breathe. At 57, Marshall-Doss is one of the oldest patients; one of her mutated genes may yield a partly functional version of wolframin, triggering a milder form of the disease, Urano says.

Two advanceshave made it possible to begin to tackle those symptoms. The first was Uranos discovery nearly 20 years ago that linked Wolfram syndrome to ER stress. The ER is where about one-third of a cells newly made proteins fold into the correct shapes and undergo fine-tuning. Cells can develop ER stress whenever they are under duress, such as when they dont have enough oxygen or when misfolded proteins begin to pile up inside the organelle.

In test tube experiments, Urano and his colleagues were measuring the activity of genes to pinpoint which ones help alleviate ER stress. One gene that popped up encodes wolframin, which scientists had shown in 1998 was mutated in patients with Wolfram syndrome. Following up on that finding, Urano and his team determined that wolframin takes part in whats known as the unfolded protein response, which is a mechanism for coping with ER stress in which cells take steps including dialing back protein production.

Scientists think wolframin plays a key role in the unfolded protein response, though they havent nailed down exactly how. When wolframin is impaired, cells become vulnerable to ER stress. And if they cant relieve that stress, they often self-destruct, which could explain why so many neurons and beta cells die in the disease.

Defective wolframin may harm cells in other ways. The ER tends the cells supply of calcium, continually releasing and absorbing the ion to control the amount in the cytoplasm. Changes in calcium levels promote certain cellular activities, including the contraction of heart muscle cells and the release of neurotransmitters by neurons. And wolframin affects calcium regulation.

Beta cells genetically engineered to lack functional wolframin brim with calcium, Ehrlich and colleagues reported in July 2020 in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. When exposed to lots of sugar, the altered cells release less insulin and are more likely to die than healthy beta cells, the team found. The cells share that vulnerability with beta cells from patients with Wolfram syndrome. We think that excess calcium is leading to excess cell death, Ehrlich says.

ER malfunctions could hamstring other organelles as well. The ER donates calcium to the mitochondria, the cells power plants, helping them generate energy. In 2018, a team led by molecular biologist Ccile Delettre and molecular and cellular biologist Benjamin Delprat, both of the French biomedical research agency INSERM, discovered that in cells from patients with Wolfram syndrome, mitochondria receive less calcium from the ER and produce less energy. Those underpowered mitochondria could spur the death of optic nerve cells, the researchers speculate.

Fumihiko Urano holds dantrolene, a muscle relaxant drug he helped test as a treatment for Wolfram syndrome.

The link between ER stress and Wolfram syndrome has been crucial for identifying potential treatments because otherwise we would have nothing to target, Urano says. But a second development was also key, he says: the advocacy and support of patient organizations, such as the Snow Foundation and the Ellie White Foundation, headed by its namesakes mother. The foundations have stepped up with money for lab research and clinical trials when other sources, including government agencies, didnt come through.

Scientists, patients, and their advocates say Urano also deserves much of the credit. Besides treating patients, he heads the international registry of cases and has taken the lead in organizing clinical trials, screening compounds for possible use as treatments, and devising potential therapies. Fumi is clearly the driving force, says Stephanie Snow Gebel, co-founder of the Snow Foundation, who about 10 years ago helped persuade him to forgo a plum job as department chair at a Japanese university and take over the Wolfram program at Washington University.

Patients could soonstart to reap the benefits. In 2016, Urano and colleagues started the worlds first clinical trial for the disease: a phase 1/2 study of dantrolene, an approved muscle relaxant. The molecule was a top performer when they screened 73 potential treatments for their ability to save cells with terminal ER stress. Dantrolene didnt improve vision in the 22 participants, including White, the scientists reported in an October 2020 preprint. But in some patients, beta cells appeared to be working better and releasing more insulin. The drug is safe, but Urano says it will need to be chemically tweaked to target its effects before future trials are warranted.

Researchers are pursuing other possible treatments targeting ER stress or calcium levels. In 2018, U.K. scientists launched a trial that will include 70 patients to evaluate sodium valproate, a therapy for bipolar disorder and epilepsy that, in the lab, prevents cells with faulty wolframin from dying. Last year, another compound that emerged from Uranos screens, the diabetes drug liraglutide, entered a clinical trial. Also last year, an experimental drug developed by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals for Alzheimers disease and ALS received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Wolfram syndrome because it curbs ER stress. That designation offers tax breaks and other incentives, and it will get trials started sooner, Urano says.

Ehrlich and her team have a candidate of their own that they have begun to test in rodents: the drug ibudilast, which is approved in Japan to treat asthma. The researchers found it reduces calcium levels in beta cells lacking wolframin and boosts their survival and insulin output. New screening projects may reveal still more candidates.

But Urano knows that even if a treatment receives approval, it would be only a Band-Aid for Wolfram syndrome. Hoping to develop a genetic cure, he and colleagues are introducing replacement genes into cells from patients and from mice engineered to replicate the disease. The researchers are endowing the cells with healthy copies of the gene for wolframin or the gene for a protein that reduces ER stress to determine whether they restore cellular function and reduce cell death. At INSERM, Delettre and colleagues are also evaluating whether directing a working gene into optic nerve cells can curtail vision loss in mice with faulty wolframin. The scientists are still gathering data, but early results suggest the treatment can halt the deterioration.

Urano and his collaborators have also turned to the genome editor CRISPR, deploying it to correct the gene defect in patients stem cells and then growing them into beta cells. When the researchers transplanted the revamped cells into mice with diabetes, the animals blood sugar returned to healthy levels, the team reported in April 2020 inScience Translational Medicine.

Stem cell biologist Catherine Verfaillie of KU Leuven is collaborating on the CRISPR research. But she notes that because the faulty wolframin gene affects so many tissues, researchers will have to figure out how to deliver the CRISPR components to most cells in large organs such as the brain and livera prospect she calls pretty daunting. Urano agrees, predicting that CRISPR-based Wolfram therapies might take 10 to 20 years to develop. The alternative approach, gene therapy, could reach clinical trials more quickly, in 3 to 10 years, he says, because researchers have more experience with gene therapy and have created several treatments that have already been approved for other illnesses.

Because it stems from a single genetic glitch, Wolfram syndrome could also help scientists tease out the role of the ER in more complex diseases, including neurological conditions, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. The ER also falters in those diseases, causing cells to die, but the mechanism is harder to discern because they stem from myriad genetic and environmental factors. In Alzheimers disease, for instance, neurons develop ER stress as misfolded proteins accumulate inside and outside the cells.

Besides deepening researchers understanding of other conditions, the research on Wolfram syndrome might even deliver candidate treatments. Everyone would be very excited if we can make advances in targeting ER stress in Wolfram syndrome, Oakes says. It would open up the whole field to doing this in other degenerative diseases.

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The race to treat a rare, fatal syndrome may help others with common disorders like diabetes - Science Magazine

Myriad Genetics to Participate in Multiple Upcoming Health and Technology Conferences – GlobeNewswire

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in genetic testing and precision medicine, announced today that it will participate at multiple upcoming health and technology conferences, sharing insights on how the company is intensifying its focus on serving patients and healthcare providers in Womens Health, Oncology and Mental Health.

Paul J. Diaz, president and CEO at Myriad Genetics, and R. Bryan Riggsbee, CFO, will participate in a fireside chat at the BTIG Virtual MedTech, Digital Health, Life Science & Diagnostic Tools Conference on February 19 at 10:30 a.m. EST.

On February 24, 2021, Mr. Riggsbee will participate in a fireside chat at the Leerink Global Healthcare Conference at 5:00 p.m. EST.

On March 2, 2021, Mr. Diaz will participate in a fireside chat at the Cowen Annual Healthcare Conference at 9:50 a.m. EST.

The presentations will be available through a live audio webcast link in the investor information section of Myriads website at http://www.myriad.com.

About Myriad GeneticsMyriad Genetics, Inc. is a leading genetic testing and precision medicine company dedicated to improving health and transforming patient lives worldwide. Myriad discovers and commercializes genetic tests that: determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across medical specialties where critical genetic insights can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. For more information, visit the Company's website: http://www.myriad.com.

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice CDx, Vectra, Prequel, Foresight, GeneSight, riskScore and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

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Myriad Genetics to Participate in Multiple Upcoming Health and Technology Conferences - GlobeNewswire

Neurons from patient blood cells enable researchers to test treatments for genetic brain disease – Brown University

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

PROVIDENCE, R.I.[Brown University] New research provides insights into the treatment of Christianson syndrome (CS), an X-linked genetic disease characterized by reduced brain growth after birth, intellectual disability, epilepsy and difficulties with balance and speech.

One of the major challenges in developing treatments for human brain disorders, like CS, is developing an experimental system for testing potential therapeutics on human neurons, said study senior author Dr. Eric Morrow, an associate professor of molecular biology, neuroscience and psychiatry at Brown University. In recent years, advanced stem cell therapies that use tissues from patients have provided powerful new approaches for engineering human neurons from the patients themselves, who may undergo the treatment in the future.

For the study, published in Science Translational Medicine on Feb. 10, 2021, Morrow and his colleagues obtained blood samples from five CS patients and the patients unaffected brothers. They then reprogrammed these blood cells into stem cells, and these stem cells were converted into neurons in a petri dish. As a result, they obtained neurons that were representative of those from CS patients, and they used these neurons to test treatments.

Morrow who directs the Center for Translational Neuroscience at the Carney Institute for Brain Science and the Brown Institute for Translational Science said the team also used a new gene-editing approach that employs CRISPR-Cas9 technologies to correct patient mutations back to a healthy gene sequence.

CS is caused by a mutation in a gene encoding for NHE6, a protein that helps regulate acid levels within cell structures called endosomes. Past research suggests that the loss of NHE6 causes endosomes to become overly acidic, which disrupts the abilities of developing neurons to branch out and form connections in the growing brain.

Loss of this important protein can arise from a variety of gene mutations in patients. The majority of CS mutations are called nonsense mutations, which prevent NHE6 from being produced at all; four of the five CS patients involved in this study exhibited this class of mutation. However, some CS patients exhibit missense mutations. Individuals with missense mutations still have some NHE6, but it is produced in smaller amounts, and the protein fails to function as it should.

The research team tested two main forms of treatment on the stem-cell-derived neurons: first, gene transfer, which involves adding a healthy NHE6 gene into the cell; and second, administration of trophic factors, which are substances that promote neuron growth and encourage neurons to develop connections with other neurons. The researchers found that the neurons response to treatment depended on the class of mutation present.

The gene transfer studies, which may represent the first steps toward developing gene therapy, were successful in neurons with nonsense mutations. After the researchers inserted a functional NHE6 gene into nonsense-mutation CS neurons, the neurons branched out properly. In neurons with missense mutations, however, gene transfer failed completely. Further tests suggested that the abnormal NHE6 produced as a result of missense mutations may interfere with normal NHE6, thereby rendering gene transfer therapy ineffective in patient cells with these mutations.

In contrast, administration of trophic factors, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), successfully promoted proper branching in all the CS neurons studied, regardless of mutation type.

While these initial results are encouraging, Morrow hopes that future studies will examine these treatments in animal models.

Our results provide an initial proof-of-concept for these treatment strategies, indicating that they should be studied further, he said. However, we may ultimately need to pay close attention to the class of mutation that a patient has when we choose a specific treatment.

In addition to Morrow, the research team included scientists from Brown University, the University of South Carolina and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The study was supported by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as a number of awards from foundations and academic institutions.

This news story was authored by contributing science writerKerry Benson.

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Neurons from patient blood cells enable researchers to test treatments for genetic brain disease - Brown University

The science behind those afternoon naps Harvard Gazette – Harvard Gazette

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Danzig

How often a person takes daytime naps, if at all, is partly regulated by their genes, according to new research led by investigators at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published inNature Communications.

In this study, the largest of its kind ever conducted, the MGH team collaborated with colleagues at the University of Murcia in Spain and several other institutions to identify dozens of gene regions that govern the tendency to take naps during the day. They also uncovered preliminary evidence linking napping habits to cardiometabolic health.

Napping is somewhat controversial, says Hassan Saeed Dashti of the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, co-lead author of the report with Iyas Daghlas, a medical student at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dashti notes that some countries where daytime naps have long been part of the culture (such as Spain) now discourage the habit. Meanwhile, some companies in the United States now promote napping as a way to boost productivity. It was important to try to disentangle the biological pathways that contribute to why we nap, says Dashti.

Previously, co-senior author Richa Saxena, principal investigator at the Saxena Lab at MGH, and her colleagues used massive databases of genetic and lifestyle information to study other aspects of sleep. Notably, the team has identified genes associated with sleep duration, insomnia, and the tendency to be an early riser or night owl. To gain a better understanding of the genetics of napping, Saxenas team and co-senior author Marta Garaulet of the department of physiology at the University of Murcia, performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), which involves rapid scanning of complete sets of DNA, or genomes, of a large number of people. The goal of a GWAS is to identify genetic variations that are associated with a specific disease or, in this case, habit.

For this study, the MGH researchers and their colleagues used data from the UK Biobank, which includes genetic information from 452,633 people. All participants were asked whether they nap during the day never/rarely, sometimes or usually. The GWAS identified 123 regions in the human genome that are associated with daytime napping. A subset of participants wore activity monitors called accelerometers, which provide data about daytime sedentary behavior, which can be an indicator of napping. This objective data indicated that the self-reports about napping were accurate. That gave an extra layer of confidence that what we found is real and not an artifact, says Dashti.

Several other features of the study bolster its results. For example, the researchers independently replicated their findings in an analysis of the genomes of 541,333 people collected by 23andMe, the consumer genetic-testing company. Also, a significant number of the genes near or at regions identified by the GWAS are already known to play a role in sleep. One example isKSR2, a gene that the MGH team and collaborators had previously found plays a role in sleep regulation.

Digging deeper into the data, the team identified at least three potential mechanisms that promote napping:

This tells us that daytime napping is biologically driven and not just an environmental or behavioral choice, says Dashti.

Some of these subtypes were linked to cardiometabolic health concerns, such as large waist circumference and elevated blood pressure, though more research on those associations is needed.

Future work may help to develop personalized recommendations for siesta, says Garaulet.

Furthermore, several gene variants linked to napping were already associated with signaling by a neuropeptide called orexin, which plays a role in wakefulness. This pathway is known to be involved in rare sleep disorders like narcolepsy, but our findings show that smaller perturbations in the pathway can explain why some people nap more than others, says Daghlas.

Saxena is the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar at the Center for Genomic Medicine and an associate professor of anesthesia at HMS.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, MGH Research Scholar Fund, Spanish Government of Investigation, Development and Innovation, the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia through the Seneca Foundation, Academy of Finland, Instrumentarium Science Foundation, Yrj Jahnsson Foundation, and Medical Research Council.

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The science behind those afternoon naps Harvard Gazette - Harvard Gazette

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